Action Alert! Liberal Hollywood

Demand Distribution of Darwin Movie, "Creation," in the U.S.!

September 21, 2009

September 21, 2009

The new film Creation," with an all-star cast (including Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany) about the freethought awakening of Charles Darwin, has been snubbed by all major American film distributors. The film portrays the period of Darwin's self-described "struggle with faith and reason" as he wrote On the Origin of Species. The film has not been picked up in the U.S. because of a misplaced fear of upsetting creationists. It's time all of us, including executives in the film industry, stop pandering to and appeasing the religious-right.

"Creation" premiered in Britain on September 13, and has been sold in almost every corner of the globe except the United States because, as the film's producer and overseas press claim, it is "too controversial for an American audience." A Gallup poll estimated earlier this year that only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution. Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of "Creation," said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On the Origin of Species was published. Thomas said that people are saying this is the best film they've seen all year yet nobody in the US has picked it up, in spite of its critical acclaim overseas. As Michael Tomasky of the Guardian asked, "liberal Hollywood, where are you when we need you? Isn't there some Godless liberal willing to step up to the plate here?"

Please contact U.S. film distributors telling them you want to see "Creation" in American theaters. Miramax claims on their website to provide audiences with "risk-taking films." Tell them to prove it! It would also be helpful to make this disturbing censorship the subject of a letter to the editor to local papers.

For maximum effectiveness, please write as an individual, not as someone responding to this action alert. (Do not forward our action alert to the target!) We are pleased to receive "blind" duplicates of your letters or responses by email: , Freedom From Religion Foundation.